Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/728154
S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S • 105 D espite its name, it took the Swift Bullet Company of Quintner, Kansas, more than 30 years to become the Swift Cartridge Company. The new company took flight just this summer, offering fully loaded, premium quality ammunition featuring the highly respected A-Frame and Scirocco bullets ready to aim, fire, and take game from bunnies to buffalo. Bill Hober, president of this bullet— and now cartridge—company, is not one to mince words or cut corners. When he says he's going to produce the best factory- loaded ammunition in the business, he pulls out all the stops and does just that. You probably know Swift as the makers of the extra-tough A-Frame, an Africa- inspired, deep-penetrating, controlled- expansion, premium bullet that combines an extra-thick copper jacket, a bonded lead nose core, and an internal wall that locks an isolated lead core in the shank. The result is a bullet that reliably expands about 1.5x, retains about 90 percent of its launch mass, and penetrates like an IRS investigation of your latest tax return. The A-Frame launched Swift back in 1984. It was one of the first ultra-tough, premium bullets on the market, the first real improvement over John Nosler's Partition of 1948. The only problem with it, in the minds of many dangerous game Rifles by Ron spomeR Swift HigH grade Hunting ammunition HitS tHe SHopS tHiS fall in a broad Selection of popular caliberS. hunters, was that you had to load it yourself. By 1988 Remington, looking for a projectile tough enough to stand up to the impact velocities of its new .416 Remington Magnum, grabbed hold of the A-Frame and stuffed it over a heap of slow-burning powder that pushed the big slug along at a buffalo-thumping 2,400 fps. That won the hearts and minds of many a safari client, and the demand for A-Frames rose to a clamor. Over the years Norma and Federal Premium also loaded various big and medium bores with A-Frames. Custom shops such as Superior Ammunition would, and still will, load any A-Frame on any case your rifle digests, but A-Frame loads were never ubiquitous. Then came Sciroccos in 1999. Here was a game-changer, the first highly aerodynamic, polymer-tipped, bonded- core bullet ever built, a thoroughbred long-ranger just itching for the chance to show your .270 what it could really do: Go long and punch like a heavyweight when you get there. The Scirocco was no specialty pill of interest only to dangerous Shooting a Blaser R8 at the range, the author grouped sub-MOA using Swift's new .375 H&H 300-grain A-Frame loads.